Our Florida Trips: Last Day at Lithia Springs over to EG Simmons

Monday, January 2, 2023

Last Day at Lithia Springs over to EG Simmons

On Thursday and Friday I took 2 more bike rides around Fish Hawk Ranch bike paths about 35 miles. This makes 7 different rides on various trails for about 120 miles. I'm getting good Cardiac Rehab here.

The picture is a good picnic spot at Shadow Run Park on the way to Bell Creek Nature Preserve.

I updated my Fish Hawk Trails Map

On New Years Eve I couldn't get either MI or OH State games on my TV but I watched the play by play on Yahoo. Not so good but I got to see both of them lose. It took all the way to 2023 to finish the heartbreaking end to a game that Ohio State led all the way.

On New Years Day I again got our campground host, Chris, to give me a shuttle to the put-in at Alderman's Ford. It is really nice that he does this for me, he used to haul Peggy & I up with our big canoe. In all the years we've paddled here I only found two other paddlers who wanted to paddle the river and worked out a shuttle.

It was a warm foggy day to start and even with a 30 minute lunch break, I made the 9 mile paddle in 3 hours. I saw 2 big alligators and lots of big turtles. For some reason it was the most Herons I've ever seen on this river.

I've been at Lithia Springs 15 nights and decided to try to get a site at EG Simmons Park on Tampa Bay. It is also a County Park that does not take reservations but if you arrive early at the end of a weekend you can usually find a campsite. I left my Lithia Springs at 7 AM on Monday morning and did the short drive over to near Apollo Beach. Not much traffic on a holiday morning. I got there before the gate opened at 8 AM, so I was number 1 on the wait list for any available campsites.

It looked like there would be at least 8 sites available but they won't hand them out here until after 11 AM checkout time. I saw that a site I had stayed in before would be available, so I was very happy. I had to do my weekly grocery shopping anyway and a visit to an ATM, since their credit card scanner is not working and they want cash. So here I am at Site #79 next to the water channel to the bay. I have plenty of room. I plan to stay here for 14 days doing both kayaking and biking.